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Heavy Class
The Heavy Class is one of the Soldier Classes in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The primary role of the Heavy Class is delivering large-scale damage to as many targets as possible, through the use of explosive ordnance or heavy gunfire. It is the only class capable of using Rocket Launchers, which provide high area damage and demolish obstacles. Rookie promotion is slightly weighted toward classes you have fewer of, but promotion is otherwise completely random. XCOM Database The Heavy Weapons specialist is responsible for deploying high explosive munitions against the enemy. Primarily relying on a shoulder mounted rocket launcher for both offensive strikes and the demolition of obstacles, these specially trained troops are critical to the successful completion of tactical objectives. Weapons The Heavy Class can be equipped with Light Machine Guns and Rocket Launchers. Abilities When a soldier is promoted, certain ranks give the player the option to choose 1 from the 2 available abilities to give to their soldier. Tactics The Heavy is a front line fighter that excels in winning straight fights with sustained fire from cover. He has explosives to break up enemy positions and to level the playing field if overwhelmed. He also excels at destroying enemy cover with explosives and heavy weapon fire. Like the other classes, there are two promotion paths for the Heavy. The left side turns the Heavy into a demolitions expert, whereas the right side focuses on holding the line and utility. The Heavy Class leans towards stationary positioning, as rockets and bullet swarm can only be used when no movement is made. To make the most out of the class, it is advisable to position the Heavy behind the best available and the most durable cover on the front line, to minimize his need for movement. Secondly, the Heavy is effective at dealing with both clustered enemies and enemies in cover, either through rocket weaponry or the Suppression ability. Rockets can hit many enemies at once and destroy their cover, exposing them to gunfire from your other troops. Suppression can be used to lock down would-be flankers and melee enemies and to provide safe passage for squadmates advancing toward enemies in strong cover. It can also be noted that the Mayhem ability increases rocket damage and the initial damage of the Suppression ability by one point per tech level of the main weapon, bringing maximum rocket damage to 12 when equipped with the Blaster Launcher and the Heavy Plasma. Builds and Promotions Players who have completed Ironman on Classic and Impossible mode recommend taking at least Bullet Swarm, Shredder Rocket, and Danger Zone. Here are some explanations as to why: Bullet Swarm >>> Holo-Targeting. Reason: Bullet swarm is class defining; This ability allows the Heavy to shoot twice per turn, or shoot+overwatch, shoot+hunker down (this will see frequent use), shoot+suppress, shoot+reload, shoot+mindfray, etc. The early double shot is simply devastating in stationary shootouts, and the alternative actions available after the first shot ensure the heavy is adaptable and comfortable on the front line. Even the double shot misses are relevant as LMG fire destroys light cover, making some targets exposed free kills just from the high volume of fire. Meanwhile, Holo-Targeting has a few things going for it, but significantly more modest benefits. It promotes a more mobile strategy and encourages focus fire as a squad against large targets. The key time Holo-Targeting shines is after a half-move, a turn where bullet swarm would have no effect. The bonus aim is also handy on overwatch and when suppressing, leading to more hits which triggers more Rapid Reaction. As for focus fire against large targets, you'll tend to grant a few aim procs to the squad to help take it down. However, bullet swarm remains comparable or superior against these large targets as having an entire additional shot at the large enemy is frequently better than a few aim procs. Holo-Targeting is weaker as a stand-alone talent, so selecting it implies a commitment to its synergies on the right side of the promotion tree, which are are weaker individually at least until they hit critical mass as you attain the final promotion. Also suppression is a relatively weak utility skill and yet it is the crux of the right-side build. Shredder Rocket >> Suppression. Reason: Shredder Rocket is another rocket; it destroys cover, hits multiple targets, is almost guaranteed damage, detonates cars/power sources/explosive terrain, and causes a damage increasing debuff. Suppression is a niche utility skill better supplied by S.H.I.V.s and the Support Class as the 'Rifle Suppression' ability, and with the always present alternative of overwatch, its niche is small, indeed. Shredder rocket aids with alien capture almost as much as Suppression as it provides exactly 4 damage, allowing you to lower alien health precisely without damage variance killing them by mistake. Suppression / Holo Targeting combo can be useful for locking down big targets, but Shredder Rocket is also helpful against them, as it provides a debuff for +33% damage taken, and dead things don't need to be locked down. The trouble with suppress is that it overlaps so much with overwatch. If you destroyed their cover and you don't want them moving, either ability will do the trick in most cases. Suppress is mostly nice to ensure another alien moving or a new pack joining doesn't consume your reactive fire on a target, letting them gain a key flank or slip back into new cover after being flanked or exposed. Against targets in cover, though it tends to have a limited effect; the AI will simply use their special abilities whenever available such as a grenade, poison, overwatch, or psionics anyway. In high difficulties aliens can land shots frequently even with the -30% aim penalty. It also costs more ammo than a normal shot, which is particularly bad for the heavy who only has 3 shots per clip (and only 6 after ammo conservation). Suppression has a few uses, but Shredder Rocket just has a bigger impact. HEAT Ammo > Rapid Reaction. Both have merits, though HEAT Ammo is slightly better. HEAT makes your heavy extremely effective against Cyberdiscs and Sectopods. These are some of the more dangerous aliens and can absorb a lot of fire. HEAT will also increase rocket damage. This also allows you to kill the accompanying drone swarms in one blast, which is especially handy in terror missions where these pick off civilians rapidly. Rapid Reaction is better against melee aliens as they must move in order to attack, triggering large quantities of reactive fire. In a typical build, HEAT Ammo has the edge. In a Holo-Targeting build, Rapid Reaction is the clear winner here, amplifying your suppression to two reaction shots. Grenadier <<< Danger Zone. Reason: Danger Zone improves your ace-in-the-hole further. Grenadier is rather poor since you generally equip Heavies with S.C.O.P.E.s, due to their natively low accuracy. Shredder builds rarely need a 4th or 5th explosive, and Holo builds want more S.C.O.P.E.-enhanced shots for more Rapid Reaction double overwatch procs. The size increase on Danger Zone is quite significant, and it extends your rocketman's reach even further. Grenades are always useful, but shredder rocket with Danger Zone pretty well covers all secondary explosive needs. The suppression builds that skip shredder rockets and could use an extra grenade, but they turn out to need Danger Zone more than anything else; its effect on suppression is transformative. Danger zone increases the suppression effect from a single target to a small area, which can result in you suppressing multiple targets at once, granting you (potentially) substantial reactive fire on several targets at once. Realistically, you'll catch 2 in suppression every 2-4 missions or so, but when you do get the once-in-a-playthrough 3-4+ it's pretty awesome. Rocketeer = Mayhem. Both abilities are strong, and there is no clear winner. Rocketeer makes rationing rockets simple, there is safety in having another source of reliable damage, and destroying cover and exposing the enemy is always relevant. Mayhem, on the other hand, maximizes the power of your rockets and gives you the ideal 'Oh Crap' button available in game against clusters of enemies. It also allows you to kill crysallids in one shot, no blaster launcher required. For right-side builds, Mayhem is the Pièce de résistance, offering minor, reliable AOE damage on suppression, finally making suppression frequently worthwhile. For demolition setups with the Shredder Rocket, both promotions are a significant upgrade; select whichever suits your play style best. I find Rocketeer speeds up missions overall greatly - there are always a few stubborn packs, and with rocketeer you can expose and remove one more of them quickly. Though I find Mayhem a safer pick for those dangerous supply ships and terror sites where you can find yourself overwhelmed in an instant and need to call down the thunder. Multiplayer Heavy Classes The following is a detailed break-down of the Heavy class stats and abilities in multiplayer mode. Note: Each soldier class has a base cost of 800 points, which would need to be added to the values above to determine the point value of a particular build. The above point and stat values reflect the default (i.e. 0 point) equipment load-out. Category:Soldier Classes